THE COST OF CORRUPTION ON OUR ATTAINMENT OF ECONOMIC GOALS AS A NATION

I

 tend to feel our forefathers had a hyperactive imagination, sense of self awareness and an acutely wicked sense of humour. One perceptive sage of yore had this interesting tale about a hyena and a man. In times gone by where our landscape was replete with verdant and pristine land it was quite easy for man and woman to walk tall, nose in the air enjoying the fresh breeze. I bet this could be one of the contributory factors to longevity and wellness among many other benefits lost to us presently. So the man was taking a walk at the edge of the forest, mostly some sort of colossus strutting across the landscape in a leisurely walk after a long hard day. Before the ‘civilization’ that the white man brought us we used to live mostly side by side and in a delicately-balanced symbiotic relationship with our bestial companions, wildlife. Soon he was joined by a hyena. As one of those eternally cunning and avaricious animals, Mr. Hyena bid his time and moved in stealth so as not to be attract any unwarranted attention. The hyena’s main intention to exercise persistence was not noble in the least. Just that in his mind’s heart, he truly hoped that as the man’s forearm pivoted back and forth, it would fortuitously detach and fall off. The hyena would instinctively jump into action, pick up the arm and canter into the thicket and chew that arm into smithereens. Unbeknownst to the hyena he was dealing with a master of concealed intentions. That plan was not entirely fool-proof as the hyena would soon discover. Without any notice, the man pirouetted and with an awkward stick unleashed a fierce onslaught of what the Americans call ‘whooping the ass’ of the hyena. Mesmerized the hyena wheeled–off for dear life howling and baying in his characteristic mournful mirthless laughter. But I digress or did I really?

One of the greatest ills that bedevil the nation of Kenya is corruption. Guess y’all knew that by now. Recently, veteran historian and politician who only ascended to political power in the Kibaki era, Mr. Joe Khamisi released an interesting book on this topic. In his book he without fear of contrition and unmitigated conviction named and shamed the men and women that not only started but have eternally kept running the conveyor belt that is graft in Kenya. These now exist as the high and mighty in our society with the propensity to ride roughshod upon anyone without any sort of concern about the consequences. As the contents of the book are no doubt injurious to their sensibilities they would fight tooth and nail and actually claw your eyes out; if not for any other reason, to ensure the putrid genesis of their family fortune is interred with the bones of their progenitors to the fullness of time. So explosive are the contents of the book that no bookshop in Kenya can dare risk their reputation and survival marketing the text captured in this mighty tome. Thanks to modern technology that has made it possible to have e-readers and books in the portable digital format, the equivalent of the encyclopedia of corruption in Kenya is availed to many who would hitherto never have had the chance to read about the rot in our ‘heritage of splendor.’ Word around town is that a new scandal will soon come to light of how some of us got the book, “Kenya: Looters and Grabbers – 54 Years of Corruption & Plunder by the Elite” at prices so low if it were trousers it would basically be belted around your knees! 

URL to the book: (https://kenyatalk.s3.amazonaws.com/2018/05/233048_158582a7703acb3c8c21b970f23aaee4.pdf)

Disclaimer: As a proponent of Intellectual Property Rights I would like to urge all who received this book as PDF or e-reader to spare a thought to the mind that toiled night and day to produce this masterpiece. In that regard try to ascertain a payment platform through which it can be made possible to ensure this onerous harbinger of truth and honourable whistle-blower is afforded the enjoyment of the fruits of his sweat.

I will not attempt in any way to summarize or infringe on the copyright of the works of this eminent personality. I will only seek to give a chronology of our malfeasance and try to propose a solution to it. Corruption is not exactly a newly-minted phenomenon in Kenya but the worst of it only began manifesting when the missionaries, explorers and colonialists began their forays into Kenya. The African traditional way of life was such that emphasis was laid on the love and mutual respect for the neighbor, barter trade, innocuous crop farming for subsistence purposes and pastoralism just for the sake of prestige and keeping men occupied. Then came the explorer and merchant community after the scramble and partition for Africa who decided to build the railway from Mombasa at the coast to Western Uganda. And just like that with the proverbial ‘iron-snake’ also was introduced the ills of greed and need for primitive wealth accumulation into the natives’ psyche.

Enough with the background. We have two kinds of corruption. Petty corruption and Grand corruption. An example of Petty corruption is bribery to get that government job you now enjoy. Grand corruption is the hacking of the IFMIS system or simply factoring in an ‘eating co-efficient (β)’ into an equation to calculate the annual budget at Ministry headquarters and voila! Indulge me:

A = Ψ [n (γ) + β]

Legend: A – Annual Expenditure

                   Ψ – Inflation markup

               γ – Monthly expenditure

               n – Number of months in a financial year (12???)

               β - Eating co-efficient

Just like the mythical Dragon’s egg it will hatch into an adorable little devil. We will tend and feed this creature because we are fond of it. As it grows its appetite will proportionately increase and we will now trick our nemeses then feed them to this little ‘pet.’ Eventually the pet will grow into an uncontrollable monster with an insatiable appetite which not even you can control and will ultimately consume you. The grouse of this piece is not to discuss corruption as a theme but rather to quantify the ill effects to us as a nation, to any prospect of development and how it curtails our efforts in fighting against the other evils that have been our Achilles heel since time immemorial like Poverty, Illiteracy and disease. Any discerning citizen of this country may no doubt have asked himself this question at one point or another. Why do we tolerate corrupt and weak-willed leaders to continue robbing us without raising any qualms? The more pressing question is: Why do you accept that an illiterate, pot-bellied, effeminate, incompetent and entirely unremarkable character who lacks moral grounding can be better than you the guy who leaves his house every morning and with great verve and optimism to engage in menial labour just for a trifle? Have we such low self-esteem that we relegate ourselves down the caste rungs to feel that only a particular class of people deserve the best in life and not us?

In recent times our televisions, radios and social media outlets have been inundated with news of corruption scandals that have pilfered money from the taxpayer’s purse. From the new season of the musical-chairs that is the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal to Kenya Power and Lighting scandal with all the shell companies owned by employees of this grand monopoly of Electrical generation in Kenya to the Maize scandal where twenty-one maize suppliers received a grand sum of 1.4 billion. The latter is more puzzling as mathematically 1,400,000,000 divided by 21 people comes to a rough figure of 66 million per head. Where in Kenya can we find a parcel of land so expansive and so prolifically productive as to be able to reap such gain, give or take the prices of agricultural produce? 

According to a 2016 report by the Kenya Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission we lose about 608 billion to corruption annually. This is roughly a third of our national budget. (I’m not sure whether to believe this report as some of its authors have been hounded out of office on, you guessed it real or perceived misappropriation allegations but let us just live with the wisdom of the Serenity Prayer). Did I just hear a sigh of dismay and exasperation somewhere? Let me give you the computation of what 608 billion can do. Let us just say it can finance the bulk of the Government recurrent expenditure for the entire year. Putting it succinctly, salaries for all government ministries, departments and state corporations. 

Apparently our constitution contemplated that a technocrat Cabinet Secretary would be less amenable to such low-class depravity but we under-estimated the jarred monstrosity that is the ‘jiggered mind!’ A local media station hired experts to calculate the cost of what even a microcosm of that 600 billion that is 12 Billion Kenya shillings can do. Divided into our highest currency denomination; the 1000 shilling note, 12B will weigh about 12 tonnes. This is paper that even if all the rappers in America and Kenya ‘make-it-rain’ in their music videos for a whole month continuously they will still not empty those ‘paper-clouds!’ If you have ever seen an 18-tonne truck you definitely know how massive a 12-tonne load of paper can be. If it falls on you it crushes you to what my aviation teacher used to call ‘marundiko ya nyama.’ (sic) I will discuss in a future post why I am a writer and do not fly planes! Similarly, 12 billion is enough to comfortably run the biggest county by land area in Kenya, Turkana for a whole year. They run on about 10 billion. On our domestic front this figure could buy two packets of Maize flour and two bundles of spinach each for our entire approximately 45 million strong population. I am working with a budget of 250 Kenya shillings per head.

I do not need to enumerate the many negative effects of corruption but as the title choice dictates I may just have to do it: Creativity, zeal, drive, passion and the joy of life is emptied out of the citizenry that toils for hours on end every day and almost 7 days a week. These are the lucky few. Unemployment is exacerbated when adequate resource cannot be availed to be equitably injected into the economy for development and creation of new jobs. Funds are denied even to youths with feasible and workable business plans that would otherwise yield self-employment for themselves and create jobs for their peers and even plug our shortfall in revenue. Stolen money will no doubt be missed in the national budget. Crucial services like education, health, defence, internal security will grind to a stand-still. The recent reduction of National Police Service remuneration is not by default but just one catastrophic consequence of corruption. When bucket-loads of cash are scooped from our common economic pool and diverted elsewhere they are no longer available to go around and finance economic activity. Consequently, real suppliers are not paid, merchants cannot make sales, Principals have no working budget to run their school affairs making them only stick to the critical path and offer the most basic of amenities to their students, doctors cannot be paid and are forced to watch that patient they have nobly endeavoured to save pass-on in their arms from a treatable condition - a direct result of unavailability of medical supplies. Simply put service delivery is non-existent and consequently a dearth in any attempt at attainment of wide-ranging development agenda and implementation of manifesto items. 

But can we really stand up and purport not to be complicit in misdemeanors that see us regularly getting robbed for five years each time by electing incompetent and majorly repugnant characters as leaders? Our problem is that we are like the unskilled saber-juggler who in great naivety fails to realize that this is an art honed by eons of practice and by extension fails to expect that the saber will ultimately injure him or a member of their audience. We are steeped in the mental slavery that affords us the notoriety in proffering praise, honour and even feel jealous of persons who own top of the range mechanisms of conveyance, monumental-flats with infinity pools and have children attending local versions of the ivy-league schools. We strip ourselves of the cloak of basic common sense and forget to ask critical questions like:

What does he do to make so much in such a short time?

What productivity does his wealth bequeath upon society?

Is his pecuniary tax load in the same regime as ours?

What measures has he/she put in place to ensure that they redistribute their wealth and build a replicable system, influence for good and build capacity, which can ultimately raise the standard of adjacent society to his?

We are creatures of routine. We always fall back to the same pit-fall of trying to outdo the other guy and accumulate as much material wealth as possible. This is not a new phenomenon. In the 16^th Century, famous politician, commenter on social affairs and author Niccolo Machiavelli observed in his book; best seller - The Prince that, “human beings are fickle, lazy and envious of gain. They are untrustworthy, unscrupulous, unreliable and braver in times of peace than when it counts the most.” Such a manifestation of mediocrity was not lost on the great writer. We fuel corruption when we elect reprehensible individuals to represent our interests forgetting that when two groups of horses pull at cross-purposes, the carriage can never be drawn forward.

Phew! I am tired of going on end about the problem statement. I will now attempt to prescribe medicament to whoever is interested in getting cured of this vice:

• We need a revolution. Like Dr. Miguna let us refuse to idly board the plane to Neverland! We need a revolution in both our mindsets and value sets. Let us call for accountability from our leaders and learn to burn in a bright, unmistakable righteous rage. We must realize we are the bosses that employ the employees (leaders) who in an annual pilgrimage cart away billions of our funds to other climes and enrich themselves at our expense. We must say enough is enough and never again allow the exchequer to be an ATM for elites. We must unite against corruption and misgovernance and demonstrate against it in a loud, immutable voice. Taxes should no longer be crimped from our income sorely for the benefit of a few to the detriment of the development (Big 4) agenda.

• We need political will from our leadership to prosecute and jail anyone who is culpable in corruption. There should be no sacred cows! We elected our President to represent our national interest and the overriding majority. Let not political or financial support from corruption cartels who may have supported your presidential campaign out-weigh your responsibility to your electorate. In the same book Mr. Machiavelli enthused the premium a prince should attach to the love and respect of his polity vis-à-vis the partisan and hypocritical interests of nobles and knights. As a creature of our constitution you are obligated to encourage and safe-guard adherence to the rule of law. Our president must also know he occupies a very important and quite powerful seat. Though reduced he yields massive power to influence political will for any cause of his choice. He should get creative. Shrugging your shoulders in diffidence and asking others what they expect you to do about corruption leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. Either style up or forget any legacy Your Excellency!

• Enforce proportionate punishment- more often than not perpetrators of this vice get –off easy with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. A guy steals 50 million and then is mock-arrested, wheeled to court and fined 2.5 Million! Is that the right level of punishment as retribution for such crimes? Levy a fine of four times the stolen amount and the universally accepted 15 years and above with no probability of ever holding public office.

• Righteous Upbringing - A section of the Holy Bible, I think the book of Proverbs Chapter 22 admonishes us to raise our children in the ways they should follow so that even in their old age they will not depart from it. Ground your progeny on the firm substratum of virtue, discipline and reverence for the dignity of work. Let them understand that even the Lord as a manager takes no pride in wealth devoid of productivity. Let them not just glorify the Range-rover but be aware of the process and system that is available to them to legitimately drive the same in their adulthood.

• Isolate perpetrators of corruption and avoid them at all cost. In breaking with the tradition of deification of copiously loaded characters and welcoming them to fund-raisers, ‘ruracios’, funerals and other social gatherings, let’s all in force ostracize them! I will admit I only heard of this measure on TV yester night but that does not devalue its prudence. In Uganda, it is said the Policemen who beat-up to a pulp long-time opposition politician Kizza Besigye were well documented and covered in all forms of the media and everything concerning them was ted out in the public domain. As a consequence, they and their families became an odium to society such that no one wanted any part of association with them any longer. This is not any less than the perpetrators of corruption deserve.

• Noble characters as leaders - At Election time, we need those nondescript yet fearless, strong, honest and magnanimous personalities who toil in their salt-mines everyday eking out an honest living to come out in confidence and exercise of honourable self-esteem to offer themselves for election. I urge us to extol Integrity above all else. Money isn’t a thing. Come out and we will raise funds for you in the age-old ‘Harambee’ spirit started by our founding father because you are the leader that we need. And when you get in, exercise vigilance so as not to fall into the same trap that now strangle-holds your predecessors.

• We need to bring back our nationalist psyche. Let us no longer ask what the nation can do for us but instead what we can do for our nation. First answer to that question is rid ourselves of crooked leaders we do not need.

If followed to the later this remedy is adequate in the short term to eliminate all variants of corruption and set us on the requisite orbit to accountable nationhood.

WHAT THE HANDSHAKE BETWEEN UHURU AND RAILA MUST PORTEND?

T

here is an interesting story by some writer of yore in the Arabian Gulf in the ambient of the current nation of Iran. The storyteller for whom I have long taken a great admiration concocted the kaleidoscopically colourful character known as Abu Nuwas. One day Abu Nuwas was cutting a tree branch for personal use. The peculiar thing is that he was sitting on the same branch. After sometime hacking on that branch with a hatchet a man passed nearby. Perceiving immediately with great concern the great peril a fellow citizen was exposing himself to by that very action he spoke out to Abu Nuwas. He enlightened him that similar action will no doubt result in a cataclysmic fall and horrible injury. Abu Nuwas ignored these ramblings as those of some busy-body over the chip of his axe as he kept chopping away. In one fell swoop the branch gave way and he came tumbling down unceremoniously with it. Rather fortuitously, he was cushioned by the thick foliage below. That same moment thoughts of gratitude crossed his mind. He suddenly had an elevated opinion of the gentleman that had warned him of impending danger and thought of him as some clairvoyant or even a prophet. He immediately went after the guy. He found him in a saunter going about his errands for the day. Fast as lightning while possessing the verve of a child with a new toy, Abu Nuwas inquired from the man how he knew that his posture would certainly have led to a tumble with the branch. Without even waiting for the answer, he further enthused the man to predict when Abu Nuwas was going to die. This was a tough ask leaving the composed character absolutely speechless and catatonic for three whole seconds. He was also starting to feel pestered. However, he composed himself though thinking of Abu Nuwas quite a stubborn and irrepressible character and told him that the day he rides his donkey and stumbles three times will be his last. That took care of Abu Nuwas giving him something to worry about and freed the paragon of concern to go about his business in bustling Baghdad. But I digress.

In most of 2017 Kenya mirrored the behavior exemplified by Abu Nuwas on the tree branch in the above anecdote. After the January 30^th 2018 swearing in ceremony for the People’s President of The Republic of Kenya, Raila Odinga there seemed to be no way back. The fission looked complete. With two ‘Presidents’ installed in the same country, only fire and brimstone clouded the horizon. The fall-out from eons of neglected historical injustices, the bitterly yet closely contested election in August and consequent brutality meted by state players on the opposition, the nullification of that entire process and the farcical fresh election seemed to have pushed us to the edge of the precipice. Battle lines had been drawn and positions entrenched so deeply the tension arising was virtually palpitating. In most households in the opposition strongholds, murmurs of secession were evident and poignant for all to see. And these sentiments were no doubt justified. Hateful rhetoric was spewed from all quarters and the same leaders who we elected as our symbols of unity morphed to become the very wedge that was splitting the gargantuan woody tree representing what we have learnt to call our mother land asunder. Dubious and quite shady characters; some purporting to be members of some business community, were co-opted on an inexplicable basis to stem the descent to the majorly unpopular but imposed majority. Polarization was the order of the day and like a living cell that is in the Telophase stage, a seismic split was definitely on the cards. Then the seemingly unexpected happened, an anticlimax of sorts. On the 9^th of March 2018, a meeting was secretly concocted at the President’s Office between him and his bitter rival catching both ally and foe speechless. The aftermath of the meeting was an unexpected handshake between the bitter antagonists and a cessation of hostilities.

Bewildered and having lost any modicum of relevance some politicians retreated to their cocoons while others simply did what politicians do best and hypocritically postured as if they never had any enmity in the first place and were just in some small sibling tiff. The handshake was no doubt good for the country. As evidenced by the crumbling economy due to the loss of investor confidence due to political uncertainty. Popular misery was exacerbated by the fact that there was no generation of revenue due to incessant demonstrations, strife and damage to enterprises that had decided to be brave as to open their doors in this turbulent period. A dearth in tourism due to travel advisories in many a foreign mission had resulted in such massive lay-offs, hotels and lodges were virtually operating on skeleton staff. Lecturers, teachers and for the first time in a while doctors went on strike totally paralyzing important aspects of human capital development and health. There was virtually no one to address these conundrums as the nation was too deep into the murk of ascertaining who was the real victor of the popular vote and whose result was a computer generated fallacy! To add insult to injury, the NASA coalition poisoned the minds of their massive support base against products and services that were deemed to be owned by senior operatives and functionaries in the Jubilee government. This drastically cut the financial output from these companies and attendant taxation that is usually a foregone conclusion when business is booming. Our nation had definitely been jolted to the core.

Now in the aftermath of the handshake I dare take on the elephant in the room and ask, “What is the relevance of this handshake?” Yes a cooling of simmering tensions has been occasioned but what’s next for the man at the bottom of the pyramid who bears the greatest brunt of any conflict? All of us can agree the newly minted concord between Odinga and Kenyatta gives us the best opportunity to iron out long standing challenges to our nationhood. This in my mind should be a conduit through which an all –inclusive agenda has to be set out for our national dialogue. Remember, only a few weeks ago sections of this country felt so disenfranchised that they wanted by hook or crook to be de-linked from this nation. A bill and frame work was all ready to be tabled and it was looking awry. Plenty of water both the red and clear has gone under the bridge but to avoid any further these are the measures I propose for the two titans of the Kenyan political landscape:

• Kill ethnic contempt & antagonism - For years on end ethnic contempt and competition has been a thorn in our flesh. We seem to think that national progression and respect for each other are virtues that exist in mutual exclusion. Some have a demented view that if you build up your tribal enclave and homestead to surpass another ethnic group that will in some way lead to national development. Such a tokenistic mentality drives me to almost salute one with the middle digit. It is flawed and impracticable to say that one county or tribal subscription, favoured by the application of an inordinate abundance of national resource will actually drive our GDP as a country upwards. This will be counterproductive, raise eye brows and even infuse unnecessary bad-blood that will be to the benefit of none in particular. Of course, the others will ask why their tax-payers kitty which they no doubt contributed to by the uptake of their blood, sweat and tears is not of any benefit to them.

•  National ideology and mindset - As a nation there is unanimous admission that we lack a national ideology and mantra to guide us in true unity much needed for continuation as one. More than any other time we need to focus more on what unites us than what actually creates rifts. Building of bridges is a skill each one of us has the onerous responsibility of undertaking at the moment. We should know that we are sailors in the same boat and that if it tips over not just the guys on one side but the entire craft will capsize. Invariably, a hole on one section of the same boat will ultimately flood and sink the entirety of the contraption. By the way tectonic forces in the Rift valley have forced the chasm to grow to the point that it split the road at Mai-Mahiu. That is to demonstrate that we don’t need any more fissures in our national politics as these mere chalk circles as a suffix to what we have already been dealt by nature will only serve to hurt rather than be of service to us. In the absence of a road all of us will be cut off, suffer lack of travel, will not conduct commerce, require expensive air travel and starve together. We no doubt have common challenges like illiteracy, poverty, disease, flooding immediately after drought & famine which we have to address irrespective of any affiliation. Our ethos should gravitate towards collective good as a nation.

• Inclusivity - is not even a word in existence anymore in the collective vocabularies of our supposed leaders onto light and future fortune. What shared prosperity are we to aspire to as a nation if some are not treated as a vital and integral part of the whole. The rumble of secession was not a passing cloud and we should begin engendering in each other a sense of belonging to this unit or we go burst with all the demerits that come with it. Not to intimidate anyone but we lose out on the synergy that would have pushed us further forward if we worked in respect and seamless articulation to each other, but who am I to say?

• Devolution- The new constitution opened the chapter on devolution and an assessment on how the new devolved units are doing so far is necessary. It has already been made evident that this is the best way of sharing out national resources and I am one to doubt we are ever going back on it. The percolation of state largesse to the man at the grass roots so far looks good but there still remains rooms for improvement. The allocation of 15 % needs to be bumped -up to about 30% of the national budget. The Lake-basin counties initiative that seeks to pool together funds for development of these units in Western and Nyanza is a welcomed move that will create utility in our county structures and help develop more future infrastructure. In unity we will attain whatever dream we look up to.

• Divisive Elections - The issue of divisive elections based on some tribal arithmetic and the exclusion of huge majorities by our winner take all system has to be addressed. One of our lionized second liberation leaders has spoken of a three-tier government that has the executive, 14 regional blocs as an addition to the existing national government. The Executive also needs a way of accommodating in the proposed governance structure the leader of the party with the highest number of elected Members and Senators in the position of Prime Minister. Those opposed to this are no doubt beneficiaries of the vicious cycle of pre-election and post-election violence that has held this country captive ever since the advent of multiparty elections. As Kenyans of goodwill we have to stand up in force and say we have outgrown the loss of our kith and kin just so that some nebulous entity we have little knowledge of and miniscule affections for becomes a president. Our lives should be deemed too sacrosanct as to be made the pawn of some useless sport and anyone opposed to that should no doubt be relegated to the same level of importance we apportion to carpets and grass on the ground. This is no leader but a character to be tossed into ignominy with the contempt he or she deserves! 

•  Peace and Security of every citizen must be guaranteed as a human right enshrined in our constitution and not as an act of mercy by the Lords of the time. These are essential components for prosperity for any nation that has ever approached the acme of the sophistication we all seek. The Peace spoken of here should not just be the calm before a storm rather an authentic product of truth and justice to be enjoyed by all bounded by our national borders. True Peace and Justice no doubt procreates the kind of stability that is much needed to progress any country to the next level and is what our leaders should aim to embrace for the well-being of our republic.

•   Corruption - The leviathan-sized monster called corruption has to be tamed to some degree. Egotistical and kleptocratic leaders should be made redundant as to only serve as a relic of our primitive past. Rampant corruption has proven an impediment to any development that we may have as a leakage of resources will no doubt hamper implementation. Also among the things castigated by former Prime Minister at the 5^th Devolution Conference in Kakamega include the moral corruption which he mentioned in jest, had seen some leaders choosing to engage in shady activities in the dark as a means to save on the electricity bills while operating in a 24-hour economy! Public office should neither be seen as an opportunity to fill-up your political war-chest for future political engagements nor a way to earn yourself the ever-elusive title of libido-in-chief by trying to give warmth to as many members of the opposite gender as possible under your jurisdiction! I have had conversations with many friends who give a dull assessment on the possibility of totally eradicating corruption but I personally hold that there is no need of tolerating any longer a vice that benefits only a few people to the detriment of the collective good. Integrity will be of greater value to us far beyond illegitimately earned riches.

•   Shared Natural Resources – We need to responsibly use our national resources not just among ourselves but with respect to others. What do I mean? When we decide to engage in illegal logging in say the Mau or Cherangany forests, the result is the drying of the Feeder Rivers that flow into Lake Victoria. A recession of the waters of that grand lake will put us at loggerheads not just among ourselves but with our neighbours Uganda and Tanzania if they are prudent in resource management on their part and they see Kenya as the weak link. Also we recently discovered oil & gas in the Lake Turkana basin and for many that was a source of great glee and jubilation. We would finally be able to fuel our motor vehicles using cheaper fuel obtained within our boundaries! But for me it only brought heart palpitations. This is because all over Africa and the third world, conflict has arisen not as a result of any other reason other than a feeling of skewed resource allocation. Immediately one group feels slighted for instance the traditional occupants of the land a mineral resource has been discovered there is bound to be the genesis of ceaseless friction. Only targeted and genuine dialogue will avert a resource–based conflict that has seen abundantly blessed nations like DRC failing to attain any level of the great potential they hold within.

•   Constitutional Implementation - Checklist on the attainment of our Constitutional timelines is now due for marking. Nearly 10 years since the promulgation how much benefit has accrued from this creature of many years struggle and many days of fine-tuning and accommodation of diverse interest? Also a strengthening of capacity for national institutions like the IEBC should be made an important agenda item for discussion as no progress can ever flow from flawed polls or an unpopular leader elected with disregard to integrity. Civic education on the same is also required so that as a polity we are also better able to critique any failures evident. As the document stipulates, “Sovereignty is vested upon the Citizens of the Republic and nowhere else.”

In humble submission I must add that we must not just blindly give in to the request for blanket amnesty to Uhuru Kenyatta and the Government machinery just because he asked for it. No! That apology will only pass the true test of sincerity and be worth anything if it is backed up by sound and deliberate action. He will only deserve our forgiveness if and only if he puts in motion the execution of a clear strategy ensuring that never again will Kenyan lives be lost as a consequence of political contestation for the presidency. He should midwife a referendum to foster a more inclusive governance structure and lobby for its approval by the majority of the nation, apparently the same that voted him in for the second term. For President Kenyatta to secure any measure of legacy he will have to deal with these long-standing issues conclusively and without regard to any impediment because the future will judge his tenure harshly if he does not.